SCDF officer gets jail for leaving NSF alone to fight fire in fatal Henderson Road blaze

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officer has been sentenced to six months’ jail for endangering the life of a full-time national serviceman (NSF) who died after a firefighting operation in 2022.

Muhammad Kamil Mohamed Yasin, 39, pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Jan 15) to one charge of causing grievous hurt through a rash act that endangered human life.

The 19-year-old NSF, Sergeant 1 (SGT1) Edward H Go, was the first firefighter to die because of an SCDF operation.

He fell unconscious while fighting a fire at Block 91, Henderson Road on Dec 8, 2022, and died in hospital later that day. The cause of death was suffocation due to a depleted air cylinder.

Kamil holds the rank of Warrant Officer 2 and was the ground commander at the scene.

As the fire burned, he left SGT1 Go alone to fight the blaze after giving him a tap on the shoulder and a thumbs-up, and did not inform any other officer that the NSF was still in the flat.

This was against firefighting doctrines for SCDF officers to operate minimally in pairs, which Kamil was aware of as a firefighter of 14 years’ standing at the time.

The sequence of events that led to SGT1 Go’s death were made public for the first time on Wednesday, when the prosecutors took the court through the facts of the case.

The prosecution sought at least six months’ imprisonment, while the defence asked for two to three months’ jail.

District Judge Shawn Ho extended his deepest condolences to the family of SGT1 Go, who were present in court.

“He tragically lost his life while serving NS as a brave firefighter,” the judge said.

After Kamil was sentenced, SCDF said that he will be suspended without pay from Wednesday, and that the force will start disciplinary proceedings against him.

Kamil may face disciplinary actions that include dismissal from service, SCDF said. He was previously suspended on half pay from Oct 19, 2023.

SCDF also said that disciplinary proceedings will commence against a second officer, whom police previously referred to SCDF for “departmental action”.

This officer is currently in a non-supervisory and non-operational post, said SCDF, which did not name the officer in a statement to media.

“Command responsibility is a cornerstone of SCDF’s ethos, and we consistently reinforce its critical importance to all our officers in supervisory roles,” the force said.

SCDF added that it was committed to maintaining a high level of operational and training safety, ensuring that officers are able to carry out their life-saving duties safely and effectively.

FIREFIGHTING RESPONSIBILITIES

Kamil was employed by SCDF in 2008. At the time of the incident, he was the deputy rota commander of Central Fire Station’s Rota 1.

He supervised 34 SCDF regulars and NSFs in that position, which he had held since 2021.

SGT1 Go, then a corporal, was attached to Central Fire Station’s Rota 1 and was under Kamil’s supervision. He was on shift duty at the time of the fire.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Jordon Li and Benjamin Low said that SCDF’s firefighting safety doctrines state that firefighting is inherently dangerous and physically demanding.

The doctrines specifically instruct firefighters never to act on their own and enter a risk area without instructions from the fire ground commander or staging officer-in-charge.

Due to the hazards, firefighters are required to operate minimally in pairs, and never alone in a fire location. As a senior SCDF officer, Kamil was aware of this, said prosecutors.

WHAT HAPPENED

At about 11.10am, SCDF received a report of a fire in the bedroom of a flat on the fourth floor of Block 91, Henderson Road. Firefighting resources were dispatched around two minutes later.

The flat’s location was under the jurisdiction of Alexandra Fire Station, but as that station’s officers were already attending to other incidents, SCDF resources from Central, Marina Bay and Sentosa fire stations were activated.

SGT1 Go was on duty with Pump Ladder 112E, which was dispatched to the Henderson Road fire. Kamil was attached to Pump Ladder 111.

Both units arrived at the open-air car park at Henderson Road around the same time, about 11.22am, and proceeded to the fire location on the fourth floor on foot.

As Kamil was the highest ranking officer at the scene, he assumed control as the ground commander of the operation in accordance with SCDF’s operational practices.

Sometime after 11.25am, Kamil, SGT1 Go and another firefighter – Lance Corporal (LCP) Muhammad Irfan Mohammed Ariff – were waiting outside the flat with a fire hose.

Once the hose began receiving water, LCP Irfan sprayed it at the flat’s front door at Kamil’s instructions. After a while, Kamil helped to push the front door inwards so that LCP Irfan could enter the flat with the hose.

Kamil then instructed SGT1 Go to enter the flat to remove any obstruction behind the front door, and assist LCP Irfan in fighting the fire.

All three eventually entered the flat with LCP Irfan holding the hose’s nozzle in the direction of the fire, SGT1 Go in support, and lastly, Kamil. They were about 3m away from the front door.

After a while, LCP Irfan started to feel fatigued and received permission from Kamil to leave the unit.

SGT1 Go took up the hose and sprayed water at the fire with Kamil supporting him from behind, as the proper operation of the hose required two people.

At one point, Kamil concluded that a second hose was needed as the fire kept reigniting, and asked for it to be set up.

ACCUSED LEAVES THE FLAT

Several minutes after LCP Irfan left the flat, Kamil started feeling dizzy from the heat and decided to leave the flat to rest and recover.

Kamil tapped SGT1 Go’s shoulder and gave him a thumbs-up gesture before leaving the flat. He did not verbally inform SGT1 Go that he was exiting the flat.

In doing so, Kamil breached SCDF’s safety doctrines to work minimally in pairs.

The fire was still ongoing, and SGT1 Go remained in the flat fighting the blaze by himself.

After leaving the unit, Kamil went to the staircase. He did not go to the designated rest area at the lift lobby as he did not want the other firefighters under his command to see him leaving the flat early, the prosecutors said.

At the staircase, Kamil encountered Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Hassan Kuddoos Abu Bakar Maricar, who had arrived at the scene at about 11.49am.

LTC Hassan was then the highest ranking officer and took over as ground commander from Kamil.

Kamil informed LTC Hassan that the fire was in the flat’s kitchen area, “one jet” – referring to a fire hose – was at work, there were no casualties, some cats had been evacuated, and he had asked for a second fire hose to be deployed.

He did not inform LTC Hassan, nor any other SCDF officer, that SGT1 Go was in the flat fighting the fire alone.

Kamil then received permission to go down to the holding area to change his breathing apparatus. He did not return to the flat after this, but went about other duties.

LTC Hassan went to the flat to assess the fire. He noticed the fire hose was on the ground near the front door and tested it. He found that the water pressure was low.

SCDF’s firefighting protocols require firefighters to retreat when water pressure in the fire hose is low. LTC Hassan concluded that all the firefighters in the flat had retreated, and went to the rest area.

At about 12.55pm, another party of firefighters arrived and managed to suppress the fire after taking up the second hose.

They entered the flat and found SGT1 Go lying motionless on the kitchen floor, near the window. SGT1 Go was extracted and received cardiopulmonary resuscitation, before being taken to the hospital.

He was pronounced dead at 2.15pm.

“DYNAMIC AND EVOLVING” SITUATION

Oral arguments on the sentence lasted more than an hour, with the judge seeking clarification on a range of issues raised by both parties.

Defence lawyer Ramesh Tiwary said that Kamil left the flat because he was overcome by the fumes, and went to the stairwell as it had better ventilation than the lift lobby.

Later, Mr Li argued that Kamil’s decision to go to the stairwell and not the designated rest area suggested he was “not someone who is used to following protocol and instructions”.

Mr Tiwary jumped to his feet and argued strenuously against this, pointing to testimonials that he said showed Kamil was not someone who broke the rules.

Mr Tiwary also said that when Kamil briefed LTC Hassan that “one jet” was still at work, he thought LTC Hassan would go to the flat, “find the situation” and respond to it.

This turned out to be the “wrong impression”, and Kamil accepted his responsibility in failing to inform anyone that SGT1 Go was alone in the flat, he said.

Both sides described the fire as a “dynamic and evolving” situation.

The prosecution accepted that Kamil’s decision to leave, while “blatantly wrong”, was motivated by his desire to recover and regain his bearings.

But while the prosecution argued that Kamil removed himself from this “dynamic and evolving” situation when he left the flat, the defence argued that he remained in it.

This was because after Kamil changed his breathing apparatus, he continued to perform his duties, argued Mr Tiwary.

He responded to a call to evacuate residents, and then rushed to the flat when he heard the distress call for a “man down”, the lawyer said.

Judge Ho asked if Kamil could be considered an experienced and long-serving firefighter who would have been equipped to deal even with a “dynamic and evolving” situation.

Mr Tiwary responded that while the blaze was “not a raging inferno”, it was a “particularly difficult” fire to put out because it kept reigniting and the water pressure was low.

“What he is saying is that it was a real-life situation and he made a mistake under pressure, under stresses. But it’s a mistake for which he will have to pay, no doubt about it,” he said of Kamil.

Judge Ho said the strength of the fire could be observed from the fact that both LCP Irfan and Kamil had withdrawn from the situation, and that Kamil had called for a second hose.

When the judge asked whether this went towards Kamil’s culpability, Mr Tiwary argued that it did not.

“To say that if it was an easy fire, the sentence will be lower, and if it was a more difficult fire, the sentence will be higher, I don’t think that is something a sentencing judge should consider,” he said.

Judge Ho then asked why Kamil did not withdraw SGT1 Go from the fire when he himself left the flat.

“Your Honour, because mistakes happen,” Mr Tiwary said. He added that if Kamil had done so, a life would have been saved.

The prosecution and defence also clashed over the extent of Kamil’s cooperation with investigations.

Mr Li said that Kamil gave a “different account” of what happened in his first statement to police, and came clean in his second statement recorded two days later.

Mr Tiwary countered that Kamil’s first statement was recorded the day after the incident, when he was traumatised and could not remember details.

However, he accepted his responsibility two days later, the lawyer pointed out.

In Judge Ho’s decision on the sentence, he said that the “dynamic and evolving” situation in which Kamil acted had to be considered against some factors.

These were Kamil’s seniority and experience, the fact that he was able to brief LTC Hassan on various points but not on SGT1 Go fighting the fire alone, and the fact he did not return to the flat after changing his breathing apparatus.

“The accused left the deceased to fight the fire on his own. He was left behind – alone,” the judge said.

For causing grievous hurt through a rash act that endangered life, Kamil could have been jailed for up to four years, fined up to S$10,000 (US$7,300), or face both punishments.

SGT1 Go was given a ceremonial funeral on Dec 13, 2022 and posthumously promoted from corporal to sergeant.

After his death, SCDF conducted an internal review and took steps to enhance the selection and training of ground commanders, such as by conducting exercises to test their command and control capabilities.

The force audited more than 260 firefighting operations from 2021 to 2022 and found that these were conducted competently and safely, although there were occasional individual lapses.

To reduce lapses, SCDF introduced more safety measures, such as having an officer monitor the deployment of firefighters and check their personal protective equipment even in smaller, home fires.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim said in February 2023 that the ministry would convene a Board of Inquiry into the incident after the coroner’s findings on SGT1 Go’s death were established.